California
California suspects accused of murdering 96-year-old widow who was baking cookies for her birthday: police
California authorities recently identified four suspects allegedly involved in the 2022 murder of a 96-year-old woman in Santa Barbara County.
Porter Ranch resident Pauline Macareno, 48, and Van Nuys resident Harry Basmadjian, 58, were both named as suspects in the murder of Monecito resident Violet Alberts, 96, on Thursday.
Los Angeles resident Ricardo MartinDelCampo, 41, and Tujunga local Henry Rostomyan, 33, were also listed as suspects.
According to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, Macareno was charged with elder abuse, fraud and manipulation of legal documents. The other three suspects face charges ranging from murder to conspiracy and solicitation of murder.
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Basmadjian and Rostomyan were arrested in January and February, respectively, while MartinDelCampo was arrested most recently on March 5. According to Sheriff Bill Brown, Macareno targeted Alberts for her wealth.
Ricardo MartinDelCampo, left, Pauline Macareno and Henry Rostomyan are all suspects in Violet Alberts’ murder case. (Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office)
“Through deceptive means, Macareno orchestrated a series of transactions, including forging documents and establishing fraudulent entities to gain control over Alberts’ assets unlawfully,” he detailed.
Macareno reportedly tricked the victim by offering her a reverse mortgage in 2020. Authorities believe that Macareno was motivated by Alberts’ advanced age.
“In the eyes of Pauline Macareno, Miss Alberts was living too long…She would probably die quickly, and then [Macareno] would have obtained this home through fraudulent means,” Brown said. “And so the acceleration of her death is is presumably what was, what was behind the murder.”
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Alberts was found dead in her bed by her caretaker on May 24, 2022. Officials later determined that she died of asphyxiation, and her death was ruled a homicide.
Violet Alberts, 96, is fondly remembered as a beloved resident of the Montecito community. (Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office)
Ingredients for cookies were found on her kitchen table when authorities investigated the scene. The cookies were for her then-upcoming birthday.
Police found a shattered window in Alberts’ bedroom, which Sheriff Bill Brown said indicated “sinister intent behind her tragic death.” In a press release, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said that it has worked 10,424 hours “unraveling the complex web surrounding Violet Alberts’s tragic murder.”
The mugshots of all the suspects were released except for Basmadjian. The sheriff’s office said that he “subsequently suffered a life-threatening medical emergency that left him totally incapacitated with a grim prognosis.”
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This aerial view shows the Montecito neighborhood of Santa Barbara, Calif. (DAVID MCNEW/AFP via Getty Images)
During a Thursday press conference, Alberts was fondly remembered as a beloved resident of her community.
“She was a vibrant 96-year-old widow, a cherished figure in the Montecito community,” Sheriff Bill Brown said at the podium. “Despite her age, she had remained active and engaged, and she was known for her warm demeanor and social nature.”
“Her love for her home, complete with a pond filled with cherished koi fish that she brought from Beverly Hills, reflected her appreciation for life’s simpler pleasures. Despite facing challenges with her memory and cognition, Violet’s spirit remained undaunted. This was evident in her plans to celebrate her upcoming birthday by baking fresh cookies.”
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Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office is actively investigating the case. (Google Maps)
Authorities are still investigating the incident. Anyone with information relevant to the case is encouraged to call (805) 681-4150.
California
Northern California’s House of Clocks has stood the test of time for 55 years
While we may lose an hour of sleep this coming weekend, one clock store in California is gearing up for one of its busiest times of the year: daylight savings.
It’s the House of Clocks, the largest clock company in Northern California, which was recently celebrating 55 years of business.
It’s a place frozen in time. Just visit the store’s 240-year-old grandfather clock. It’s got plenty of stories to tell, dating back to 1780.
“This is the oldest piece we have right now,” clocksmith Joey Hohn said.
The House of Clocks is on the outskirts of Downtown Lodi in San Joaquin County.
“We have new, we have vintage, we have antique,” co-owner Sandy Hohn shared. “Honestly, it feels like not a day goes by that we don’t get a phone call or an email of somebody wanting to sell something for 100 different reasons.”
The clock store has been with the Hohn family for three generations. It’s all thanks to one family heirloom.
“When the first war started, [my grandparents] left everything and had to move,” Joey Hohn explained. “After the Second World War, my grandpa was stationed in Germany. They went back to the house that had been abandoned and the neighbor who they left the property to said, ‘As far as I’m concerned, everything in the house is still yours.’ They went back and got this, so this is my great-great-grandparents’ clock.”
You can find just about anything in the House of Clocks, from old grandfather clocks to clocks that can fit in the palm of your hand.
What you can’t find anywhere else is the Hohns’ love for Lodi.
“We’ve made so many friends over the years out of customers,” Sandy Hohn said. “Friends that are just wonderful, that love collecting, and we keep them repaired for their families, which is awesome. They have sentimental value that’s passed down.”
That same love for the city and their community runs in the family.
“We had a customer that wanted to repaint their dial,” Joey Hohn explained. “We told them no because it was her father’s who had passed away. Every time he went to wind the clock, he placed his thumb in the same spot. When we told her that smudge there on the dial was her father, she said, ‘Back away, don’t you dare.’ It was just a good memory we have.”
While you can’t turn back time, what we can do is keep memories alive and treasure the present moment.
“There’s so many personalities,” Sandy Hohn said. “We just try to find a good home for them.”
California
Signs of spring blooming at Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve after wet, warm winter
It’s beginning to look a lot like spring!
The warm and wet weather this winter has led to the start of a dazzling super bloom at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve.
“We had an unseasonably warm winter as well, so there’s actually a lot of growth,” said Callista Turney with California State Parks. “We’re having early wildflowers that are already at the park. So if you look at the poppy live cam, it shows a lot of orange already.”
The rain has helped the early blooms, but it’s actually the heat that accelerated the growth of the flowers.
“It will actually speed up the growth of the plants, so some of them were already blooming and that’s going to cause those blossoms to accelerate faster towards seed production. And the blossoms that are in the process of being formed, those are going to open up soon as well.”
We also sometimes see great super blooms in Death Valley National Park, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Joshua Tree and the Mojave National Preserve.
“It’s definitely a rare occurrence because we don’t always have the right conditions. It’s gotta be the weather, the wind, the rain, all coming together,” said Katie Tilford, Director of Development and Communications with the Theodore Payne Foundation.
If it continues to stay unseasonably warm, we’ll see a shorter bloom. The key to a longer season is milder weather.
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California
Republican governor candidate Chad Bianco says he’s the ‘antithesis to California state government’
We are counting down to the California governor’s race. Chad Bianco, the sheriff of Riverside County, is one of the two biggest names running on the Republican ticket.
In a one-on-one interview with Eyewitness News political reporter Josh Haskell, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said, “I am the antithesis to California state government because I am going to take a nuclear bomb into that building and absolutely destroy everything that they do to us behind closed doors.”
Although he’s been elected by the voters twice, Bianco says he’s not a politician — which is why he believes his campaign for California governor is resonating, as reflected in the polls.
“President Trump, in one year, from 2025 when he took over, until now, did absolutely nothing to harm California. What’s harming California is 30 years of Democrat one-party rule that have created an environment here that no one can live in anymore. They’ve only been successful here in California because we vote D no matter what. You vote D or die. I mean, that’s it. Charles Manson would be elected in California if he was the only Democrat on the ballot,” Bianco said.
Bianco isn’t the only conservative Republican running for governor, and according to polling, he’s neck-and-neck with former Fox News host Steve Hilton.
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Leading in some polls in the wide-open California Governor’s race as the June primary creeps closer is Republican and former Fox News host Steve Hilton.
“Steve has no chance of winning in November. The Democrats know that I’m going to win in November, and so they have to do everything they can to keep me out of that,” Bianco said.
When asked about the affordability crisis in the state, Bianco said, “Almost the entire issue of affordability in California is because of regulation, excessive regulation imposed by government. Every single regulation can be signed away with the governor’s signature.”
“It is a drug and alcohol addiction problem that, and a mental health problem,” he said about the homelessness crisis. “Every single bit of money that is going to these nonprofits that say ‘homeless,’ zero money. You’re getting absolutely nothing. I can’t tell you that we would end what we see in the homeless situation within a year, but I guarantee you we would never see it again after two years.”
When challenged on that prediction, pointing to how the state doesn’t have the facilities to treat the number of people living on our streets, Bianco responded, “We have been conditioned to believe that buildings take five years to build. It takes 90 days or less to build a house, but in California, it takes three to five years because the government won’t allow it. The regulations that are destroying this state are going to be removed with me as the governor.”
Bianco also said California jails shouldn’t have to play the role of treatment facilities.
Although he says he supports the Trump administration and wants the president’s endorsement, Bianco has been traveling the state — meeting not just with Republicans, but Democrats and independents as well. He says all of our state government officials have failed.
The primary election is June 2.
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Copyright © 2026 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.
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